Should We Use Someone Else's Sermon?: Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World

By Scott M. Gibson

With easy access to sermons on the Internet, plus pressure to deliver the next sermon with little time to prepare, no wonder some pastors have resorted to plagiarizing other people’s sermons, passing them off as their own.This growing epidemic has received coverage in the Wall Street Journal, on National Public Radio, and elsewhere. Some pastors have been caught in the act and dismissed from their churches. Is this fair? Is this stealing? How can you recognize it? How can it be prevented? This book not only helps explain the problem, but it also explores the ethical implications and gives advice on how to avoid it or deal with it if the problem surfaces in your church. It includes study questions at the end of chapters and a concluding case study.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: May 26, 2009
• ISBN: 9780310574682

Scott M. Gibson

Scott M. Gibson is the Haddon Robinson Professor of Preaching and Director of the ThM. Program in Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the cofounder of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. He has served as a pastor and is one of the founders of Cornerstone Church Network. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Knox College University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford (Dphil) Among his many books are Preaching to a Shifting Culture, Preaching for Special Services, and Planning Your Preaching. Dr. Gibson and his wife Rhonda live in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Book preview

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Also by Scott Gibson

The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, with Keith Willhite

Making a Difference in Preaching

Preaching the Old Testament

Preaching for Special Services

Preaching to a Shifting Culture

1

To Rhonda,

who stole my heart.

ZONDERVAN

Should We Use Someone Else’s Sermon?

Copyright © 2008 by Scott M. Gibson

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-57468-2

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Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.

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Requests for information should be addressed to:

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gibson, Scott M., 1957 –

Should we use someone else’s sermon : preaching in a cut-and-paste world / Scott M. Gibson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-28673-8

1. Preaching. 2. Plagiarism. I. Title.

BV4211.3.G53 2008

251 — dc22

2008016705

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in this book are offered as a resource to you. These are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

1 Scenes of Sermon Stealing

2 The Long Legacy of Sermon Stealing

3 Give Me a Definition, Please!

4 Integrity in Plagiarism and Preaching

5 Preaching in a Cut-and-Paste World

Afterword : Kidnapping Words

Appendix: A Case Study: Whose Sermon Is It? by John V. Tornfelt

Notes

About the Publisher

Share Your Thoughts

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

They came and prigged my silver,

my linen and my store,

But they couldn’t prig my sermons;

they had all been prigged before.

— E. V. Lucas, from the novel Mr. Ingleside

I’m grateful to Wayne Shaw and Chuck Sackett for the kind invitation for me to deliver the Webb Lectures on Preaching at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary in the fall of 2005. This opportunity to speak to students, faculty, and alumni on the topic of preaching and plagiarism was the catalyst that enabled me to put onto paper my research and reflections. Thanks to Wayne and Chuck and those in attendance for your feedback and interaction.

The opportunity to lecture on preaching and plagiarism at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, during the spring school of 2007, gave me further occasion to test my thinking. Thank you for this privilege. Thanks to Jeffrey Arthurs, Haddon Robinson, Matthew Kim, Casey Barton, Patricia Batten, Calvin Choi, Eric Dokken, and Lee Eclov for your insights from reading various drafts of the project.

Thanks, too, to Grant Buchholtz, Keith Campbell, Joy Carren, Aaron Chan, Holgie Choi, Michael Curtis, David Hanke, Thomas V. Haugen, Lisa Morrison, Bill Nicoson, Stephen Nyakairu, Gus-tin Oh, John Percival, Deryk Richenburg, Mike Samson, Stephen Sebastian, Ken Shigematsu, Brian Shockey, Ken Swetland, and Samuel Yu.

Many thanks to the Board of Trustees of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for the generous gift of sabbatical study, during which I researched and wrote this book. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I’m grateful to John V. Tornfelt, academic dean at Evangelical School of Theology in Meyerstown, Pennsylvania, for permission to use his case study and teaching notes for Whose Sermon Is It? John’s interest in the subject of preaching and plagiarism helped as I honed the chapters of this book.

A thousand thanks to Paul Engle of Zondervan for your wisdom, insight, and support for this project. Years ago Paul gave me, a fledgling junior professor of preaching, an opportunity to publish, for which I continue to be grateful. Once again I have the pleasure of working with him. Your understanding and interest in the subject and your suggestions and encouragement have sustained this project more than you can imagine. Thanks also to Verlyn Verbrugge and intern Karin Walters at Zondervan for your expert and careful editing of this project. I appreciate it more than you know.

Tobias Wolff wrote Old School , a novel about a student who plagiarized a short story while studying at an exclusive boy’s school. The boy pilfered a story that was written a few years earlier by a female student from the neighboring girl’s school. At the time of the accusation, the president of the student honor council said despairingly to the plagiarist, Plagiarism’s bad enough. … But from a girl? I can’t believe you’d plagiarize from a girl.¹ However, I know a girl who’s worth stealing from, my wife, Rhonda. She has shown me what it means to love. She is patient, attentive, constant in her faith, and worth copying.

So, this book on sermon stealing is dedicated to my wife, Rhonda, who stole my heart. She kidnapped me and has held me ransom with love. Her support, care, and grace have changed my life. Hers is an appropriate theft — one for which I’ll be ever thankful to the Lord, and by which I’m truly blessed.

CHAPTER ONE: SCENES OF SERMON STEALING

If it happens that a preacher weaves among his

own words a proportion of other men’s flowers, he

falls into worse disgrace than a common thief.

— John Chrysostom

SCENE ONE: FLAP IN FELLOWSHIP HALL

The first time I faced the ugliness of plagiarism was when I was sixteen years old. It was the days of the Jesus Movement, and as a new Christian I was involved in every Bible study or any other kind of study. One of the studies I participated in was a reading group consisting of men and women of all ages. We met weekly, reading through popular Christian books. We read a chapter or two for each week’s meeting and discussed it.

While at worship one Sunday morning at my home church, the preacher talked in his sermon about an incident that happened to him that week. He described a scene that took place in the middle of the night as he tended to his little girls. The setting, the words, the mood — everything — came from the book our group was reading.

As the congregation filtered out of the building, one of the leaders of the group — Don, a middle-aged man — confronted the pastor while he was shaking hands at the door. You used a story from Keith Miller, didn’t you? he queried. He challenged him a little more. The pastor was shaken. He mumbled and fumbled, but the accusations did not move any further — until later that afternoon.

I was home when the telephone rang. My mother called me to the phone.

It’s Mr. Cunningham, she said. I knew Mr. Cunningham. He was the head deacon, a retired farmer who had given his life to the church. Mr. Cunningham was always kind to me. He knew I didn’t come from a Christian home and was happy that I had become part of the church.

Hello, I said.

Hello, Scott, this is Mitchell Cunningham. His voice seemed formal, business like. The reason why I’m calling is that you’re to come to a deacon’s meeting next Sunday afternoon. We want to talk with you about the accusations your reading group has against the pastor. My heart sank. I began to tremble. I really didn’t know what to think. But, as a young, naïve high school kid, I agreed to be at the meeting.

The next week, the entire reading group assembled in the Fellowship Hall, along with the deacons and deaconesses. A long series of tables stretched the length of the hall to fit us all around the table — to resemble fellowship, I guess. I knew something important and strangely odd was happening, but, to my young mind, I really didn’t fully comprehend it.

Mr. Cunningham called the meeting to order and led in prayer. He began by stating that the meeting was called because our reading group had accused the pastor of plagiarizing.

Your group is causing all kinds of problems in this church, piped one of the deaconesses.

Leave the pastor alone! shouted another.

"What is

Reviews for Should We Use Someone Else's Sermon?

[deanc_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sermon stealing is a great temptation in today's age of Internet-accessible, ready-to-download homilies. Gibson exhorts preachers to live by the higher standards of integrity, honesty, and diligence they proclaim from the pulpit. Though brief, the book is well-researched, readable, and highly relevant. I commend it to every man and woman who prepares oral messages for religious settings. It would make an excellent supplemental reading for college-level homiletics classes.

[erikssonfamily · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Gibson's short treatise is a gentle reminder for pastors to remain dignified in their sermon preparation. The book is short and sweet and to the point. Plagiarism is wrong and unbiblical. A must read for anyone who is contemplating ministry or already serves in that capacity.